Are you McR alumni?
Are you an alumni?

Privacy policy

McCullough Robertson Lawyers and its related companies (we, us or our) recognise that your privacy is important, and we are committed to protecting the personal information we hold about you in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act), including the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).

This privacy policy sets out how we may collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information.

We may update this privacy policy from time to time by publishing the updated policy on our website.  We encourage you to check our website regularly to ensure you are aware of our current privacy policy.

Definitions

In this privacy policy:

  1. ‘personal information’ means any information or opinion about an individual who is identified or reasonably identifiable, regardless of whether it is recorded in a material form or not; and
  2. ‘sensitive information’ is a subset of personal information and includes information or an opinion about an individual’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs or affiliations, membership of a political, professional or trade association or trade union, sexual orientation or practices, criminal record, health or genetic information, biometric templates, and biometric information used for verification or identification.

Collection

Types of information collected

We may collect and hold your personal information if you:

  1. enquire about or engage our services;
  2. are connected to, or involved in, a legal matter in which we have been engaged to act;
  3. work for a current or prospective client or community partner;
  4. visit our website or interact with us online;
  5. subscribe to or opt-in to receive our publications or marketing communications;
  6. register for or attend our seminars or events;
  7. register your interest in, or apply for, a job or clerkship with us or are part of our alumni network; or
  8. otherwise interact or have dealings with us.

The types of personal information we collect and hold about you will depend on our relationship with you. This may include:

  1. name, title, gender, date of birth, contact details (such as your address, email address, phone number and facsimile number), job title, employer, qualifications and work history;
  2. information about your relationship with us, our clients and others (such as other persons and organisations involved in a legal matter, and our community partners);
  3. identity information (such as passport, driver’s licence and other government issued identity information) and nationality;
  4. billing and financial information (such as bank account and payment card details);
  5. business and legal topics of interests and communication preferences;
  6. dietary and other specific requirements when attending our offices and events (which could include sensitive information if it relates to your health, disability or religion); and
  7. personal information and sensitive information provided to us in communications (including in person, by email, over the phone, via a web-form and virtually).

If you are a party to, or otherwise connected with, a matter in which we have been engaged to act, we may also collect other personal information and sensitive information about you that is relevant to the matter in the performance of our legal services. The specific type of information collected will depend on the nature of, and your connection with, the matter.

Method of collection

We will generally collect your personal information directly from you.

We may also collect your personal information from third parties where it is unreasonable or impractical to collect the personal information directly from you. This may include from:

  1. our clients or others involved in a legal matter in which we have been engaged to act;
  2. government departments and agencies, regulatory authorities and licensing bodies, courts and tribunals, or law enforcement agencies;
  3. your employer, an organisation you work with or a third party acting on your behalf (such as your legal representative, attorney, dealer, broker or financial advisor);
  4. service providers we engage to provide services in respect of a legal matter (such as experts, accountants, consultants or barristers) or credit reporting bodies;
  5. search, ratings and recruitment agencies, or former employers and referees who you refer us to; and
  6. publicly available sources (such as public registers, online searches, social media platforms and searches made under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth)).

If you provide personal information about another person to us, we ask you to refer that person to this privacy policy. You must also only provide sensitive information about another person to us where you have that person’s consent to do so, or the disclosure is otherwise permitted under the Privacy Act.

Our premises are protected by CCTV, and your visit may be recorded. We use CCTV to ensure a safe and secure environment for all visitors. For further information, please refer to our CCTV Privacy Policy.

If you apply for credit from us, we may collect and hold various information relating to your financial position. Our separate Credit Reporting Policy sets out how we collect, use, disclose and otherwise manage credit-related information. For further information, please refer to our Credit Reporting Policy and Statement of Notifiable Matters.

Failure to provide information

When we interact or have dealings with you, we will usually need to collect some of your personal information. If we can’t collect this information or the information you provide is incomplete or inaccurate, we may be unable to provide you or our client with the services, information or other assistance you or our client are seeking. In some circumstances you may be able to choose whether to provide your personal information or use a pseudonym, such as when making a general enquiry.

Our purposes

We may collect, hold, use or disclose personal information for the purpose for which it was collected and other purposes. These purposes include:

  1. providing our services to you and our clients;
  2. communicating with you in connection with your enquiries, requests or feedback;
  3. our internal business operations (including identity verification, business acceptance and conflict processes, credit checks, accounting, billing, matter management, financial performance, risk management, insurance, reporting, record keeping and audits);
  4. building and maintaining our relationships with you and our current and prospective clients, community partners, service providers and business contacts (including organising and facilitating seminars and events);
  5. providing you with updates, insights and other information (including event invitations) relevant to your interests, business or area of expertise;
  6. nominating you and our clients for third party awards and recognition, and seeking your feedback about our services including through participation in market surveys;
  7. analysing and improving our services and business;
  8. ensuring the safety and security of our people, workplaces and systems; and
  9. complying with or enforcing legal and professional requirements, industry best practice, and taking appropriate action (including complying with court orders, establishing, exercising and defending our legal rights and interests, and responding to CPD compliance audits).

If you no longer wish to receive our marketing emails, you may unsubscribe or opt out at any time by using the unsubscribe link contained in our marketing emails or contacting our Privacy Officer using the details in the Contact us section

Disclosure

We may disclose personal information about you to third parties for the purposes outlined above. These third parties may include:

  1. our related companies for our internal business operations;
  2. our service providers who assist us in operating our business (including credit reporting bodies, technology and marketing service providers, search and recruitment agencies, event service providers, accounting, audit and professional advisors, banks, insurers and payment processing providers);
  3. where we collect or hold your personal information for the purpose of providing legal services to a client, our client and any representatives or specialists (such as experts, accountants, consultants or barristers) engaged in relation to the matter;
  4. any third parties that you have authorised us to disclose your personal information to;
  5. government departments and agencies, regulatory authorities, licensing bodies, courts and tribunals, law enforcement agencies or any other person as required or authorised by law (including the Privacy Act);
  6. legal directories and market survey organisations;
  7. a purchaser of the assets and operations of our business, provided those assets and operations are purchased as a going concern; and
  8. our related entities and other organisations with whom we have affiliations so that those organisations may provide you with information about services and various promotions (such as jointly sponsored events).

Overseas disclosure

From time to time, we may disclose your personal information to service providers who store data in overseas locations, such as the UK or USA. In these cases, we take measures to ensure that any overseas recipient complies with the APPs in handling the personal information we share with them.

We may also disclose your personal information to third parties located outside of Australia where:

  1. our client is located overseas;
  2. we are engaged to act in a matter that involves an overseas jurisdiction or party;
  3. a job or clerkship applicant has provided referees located overseas; or
  4. you have agreed to act as our reference for the purpose of overseas legal directories and market surveys.

Online privacy

Cookies

Our website uses “cookies” and similar small text files to enhance your browsing experience and ensure our website functions effectively. Cookies allow us to understand how our visitors use our website, such as which pages are accessed, so we can improve our services. These cookies do not identify you personally, and the information collected is used only to maintain website performance and provide a seamless experience.

We also use cookies to assist with our online marketing and to advertise our services to visitors on other platforms, such as Google Ads or LinkedIn. Cookies placed by these third-party platforms help us assess the success of our business partnerships, enhance website performance, and personalise your experience on both our website and those of our service providers. As a result, if you visit other websites or platforms, you may come across advertisements for our services based on your prior visits. Additionally, we may share the data gathered through cookies with third parties to support our marketing efforts.

By using our website and not opting-out of cookies, you agree to our use of cookies as outlined in this privacy policy.
Most web browsers are configured to accept cookies automatically. However, if you would prefer not to receive cookies, you may change your browser settings to either prompt or refuse cookies entirely (including cookies used by us). If you use your browser settings to block all cookies, you may not be able to access or fully use certain features of our website.

Employment applications and recruitment

If you register your interest in, or apply for, an employment opportunity with us (including a work placement or clerkship), we will collect certain personal information from you. Typical information we will collect will be:

  1. your contact details (such as your name, address, email and telephone number);
  2. your educational background, employment history, and qualifications;
  3. confirmation of your eligibility to work in Australia;
  4. contact details of your referees;
  5. the outcome of any police or background checks including any relevant details of criminal convictions, where applicable; and
  6. any other personal information that you choose to disclose to us during the recruitment process (including an interview), which may include sensitive information..

We may collect your personal information directly from you or from a third party (such as a recruitment agency, your referees and publicly available sources including social media platforms).

We collect, hold, use and disclose this personal information for the purpose of processing your enquiry or application, and assessing your suitability for the relevant role or opportunity. If you apply for a role with us but are unsuccessful, we may also retain and use your personal information to assess your suitability for other roles within our organisation.

If you do not provide us with the personal information we request, we may be unable to process your application or offer you employment with us.

We are committed to diversity and inclusion, and as part of this commitment, we may collect sensitive information about your sexual orientation, gender identity, racial background, religious preferences, or whether you identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. We will only collect this information if you choose to provide it to us and we will only use this information to assess the effectiveness of our equal employment opportunities policies and not for any other purpose.

Security

We store your personal information in different ways, including in electronic and paper form. We use third party service providers to store some personal information.

We take reasonable steps to protect your personal information that we hold from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure, including implementing and maintaining electronic and physical security measures.

Access and correction

You may request access to personal information we hold about you, by making a written request to our Privacy Offer using the details set out in the Contact us section below. We will respond to your request within a reasonable period (usually within one month). We may charge you a reasonable fee for processing your request (but not for making the request).

If, upon receiving access to your personal information, or at any other time, you believe the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date, please notify us immediately. We will take reasonable steps to correct the information so that it is accurate, complete and up to date.

We may need to verify your identify before providing access to or correcting your personal information.

In some circumstances, we may decline a request to access or correct your personal information. If we decline your access or correction request, we will provide you with a written notice explaining the reasons for our refusal (unless it would be unreasonable to provide those reasons). If you disagree with our decision to decline your access or correction request, you can let us know using the complaint process outlined in this privacy policy.

Retention statement

We determine how long to retain different types of personal information based on what is necessary for our business operations, taking into account our legal obligations and statutory retention periods. We will retain and delete your personal information in accordance with our policies and procedures, and applicable laws.

Complaints and feedback

If you wish to make a complaint about a breach of the Privacy Act or the way that we have handled your personal information, please contact our Privacy Offer using the details set out in the Contact us section below. We will take reasonable steps to investigate your complaint and respond to you within a reasonable timeframe.

If you are not happy with our response, you may lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) through their website at https://www.oaic.gov.au, by emailing enquiries@oaic.gov.au or by calling 1300 363 992.

Contact us

If you have any questions or concerns about our privacy policy or the way we handle your personal information, or if you wish to make a request to access or correct your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer at:

Street address: Level 11, 66 Eagle Street, Brisbane, Queensland 4000
Email: privacy@mccullough.com.au
Telephone: +61 7 3233 8888
Fax: +61 7 3229 9949

Our privacy policy was last updated on 14 August 2025.